Contiguity, constituencies, and the political representation of minorities

Benjamin Forest and Mike Medeiros
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Benjamin Forest: 5620McGill University, Canada

Environment and Planning C, 2021, vol. 39, issue 5, 879-899

Abstract: Contiguity is commonly treated as an essential, albeit noncontroversial quality of electoral districts. In contrast, we argue that the virtues ascribed to contiguity – discouraging gerrymandering, facilitating democratic deliberation, and mirroring political communities – either have weak justifications in practice or do not have a clear association with contiguity per se . Moreover, contiguity can impose significant constraints on minority representation when minorities live in segregated, widely separated settlements. We use examples from Canada to demonstrate the effects of contiguity on minority representation by creating sets of non-contiguous constituencies that substantially increase the number of districts with minority majorities. More generally, we argue that scholars should pay more attention to how the conflation of contiguity and political community are woven into state practices.

Keywords: Constituencies; political community; political representation; minority representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:879-899

DOI: 10.1177/2399654420972401

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